Academic and research departments

Biography

I am a Lecturer in Music at the Department of Music and Media, University of Surrey. I am a graduate of Imperial College, London (first-class BSc Honours) and a graduate of Royal Holloway, University of London (MMus with distinction and PhD in Music). My PhD was funded by an AHRC doctoral studentship at the Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM), supervised by Professor Nicholas Cook. My doctoral thesis combined empirical-analytical methods for the study of recordings with performance historiography and criticism. Following completion of my PhD, I was a visiting lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, where I taught on the BMus and MMus pathways, and I was also affiliated with the Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge, where I supervised various undergraduate BA Music Tripos courses. Prior to my appointment at Surrey, I held a postdoctoral Fellowship at Humboldt University, Berlin, and I also undertook research at the Centre for Performance Science, Royal College of Music, London.

My research interests are multi-disciplinary and embrace musical performance studies, music psychology, music education, empirical musicology, historical and cultural musicology. Areas of research include analysis of performance, performance practice, cultural responses to the legacy of recordings, the media and materiality of recording technologies, listening practices, musicians' self-regulated learning, expressive gesture, and visual culture and music. I have published full-length studies as sole author in leading peer-reviewed journals including The Musical Quarterly, Music & Letters, The Journal of Musicological Research, and Musicae Scientiae. I have also co-authored publications stemming from collaborative projects (for example, recently, in Musicae Scientiae and Research Studies in Music Education) and further output is forthcoming from ongoing collaborative research. I have contributed essays to edited books (by Routledge publications) and my scholarly review articles have been published in the journals Nineteenth-Century Music Review, Musicae Scientiae, Empirical Musicology Review, and Psychology of Music.

I am an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK), and I have a Licentiate in piano performance from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London. In January 2018 I was awarded a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Teaching Innovation Award. In February 2019 I was appointed Programme Director for Music.

Other University roles:

University roles and responsibilities

Programme Director for Music BMus

Research

Research interests

My research interests embrace musical performance studies, empirical musicology, music psychology, music education, historical and cultural musicology. My research combines empirical approaches (quantitative and qualitative techniques) with historical contextual study to interrogate both technical and expressive dimensions of performance, listeners' aesthetic responses, and the role of culture in shaping our understanding of music.

I have reviewed academic books and commercial CDs for the journals Nineteenth-Century Music Review (Cambridge University Press), Musicae Scientiae (ESCOM/SAGE Journals), Psychology of Music (SEMPRE/SAGE Journals).

Postgraduate teaching (Music MMus):

Topics taught include research methods, techniques in the study of performance, psychology of performance, performance as research

Past:

Readings in Musicology A (MUSM056)

Research Training A (MUSM054)

Research Training B (MUSM055)

Performance A (MUSM039)

Performance B (MUSM040)

Student responses:

Opera Studies

"Module very well organized and prepared, clear structure". "Critical thinking was encouraged". "An accessible module regardless of one's level of familiarity with opera".

Historical Performance Practice

"A good classical music module! Becoming increasingly rare". "We were encouraged to think in a different way and it challenged my pre-existing ideas about performance practice". "It has encouraged me to become more open-minded as a performer which is really relevant to me".

(2017). Volioti, G. 'Musing on The Past: Historical Recordings as Creative Resources of Piano Performance', in Cristine MacKie (ed.), New Thoughts on Piano Performance: Research at the Interface Between Science and the Art of Piano Performance (A London International Piano Symposium Publication, 2017), 65-86. ISBN: 978-164007055-4

(2014). Volioti, G. ‘Performing National-Cultural Identity: Rhythmic Gesture as the Phenomenology of the Folk’, in Nikos Maliaras (ed.), Proceedings of the International Musicological Conference the National Element in Music, 18-20 January 2013 (Faculty of Music Studies, University of Athens), 91-111. ISBN: 978-960-93-5959-7

(2018). Volioti, G. Seeing and Hearing the Beyond: Art, Music, and Mysticism in the Long Nineteenth Century. Annual Conference of the Association of Art History. London, 5-7 April 2018. [conference research paper]

(2015). Volioti, G. 'Working with Piano Rolls: A Musicologist's Perspective', presented as part of my collaborative research seminar 'Rollin' On: Pianola Grooves Uncovered', MusicResearch Seminar Series, School of Arts, PATS Studio 1, University of Surrey, 25 February 2015. [Research presentation linked to public exhibition, 'The Player-Piano and Pianola', part of The Guildford International Music Festival 2015]

(2014). Volioti, G. 'Who Cares What You Listen: Musical Recordings as Cultural Products of Creativity', invited by Prof. Paul Sowden (Department of Psychology) and presented at the ILLUME Research Seminar Series, Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences, University of Surrey, 17 July 2014. [invited research presentation]

(2013). Volioti, G. ‘Historical Recordings and Piano Performance’. The London International Piano Symposium, Royal College of Music, London, 8-10 February 2013 (Recipient of Music & Letters Trust Award). [conference research paper]

(2013). Volioti, G. 'Performing Norwegian National-Cultural Identity: Rhythmic Gesture as the Phenomenology of the Folk'. International Musicological Conference, The National Element in Music, University of Athens, Greece, 18-20 January 2013. [conference research paper]

(2011). Volioti, G. 'Between Tradition and Innovation - Whose Style Is It Anyway? An Empirical Investigation of the Performance Practice of Grieg's Slatter'. International Performance Studies Conference, PERFORMA'11, University of Aveiro, Portugal, 19-21 May 2011. [conference research paper]

Keynote address:

(2018). 'Reflections on Classical Sound Recordings: Prospects and Challenges for Performance Studies'. The London International Piano Symposium, Royal Academy of Music, 27-29 October 2018.

Public exhibition:

(2015). 'The Player-Piano and Pianola'. A public exhibition hosted in association with The Guildford International Music Festival. The Lewis Elton Gallery, University of Surrey, 9-18 March 2015. Exhibition co-organised and co-presented by Dr. Georgia Volioti and Professor Clive Williamson, artefacts and instruments curated by Denis Hall and Rex Lawson. The world of the pianola and reproducing piano is a fascinating world full of riches which have scarcely been recognized by musicians, scholars or the general public. This exhibition brought closer to the public rare and unseen artefacts of early recording technologies, historical documents (e.g., concert reviews, archival photographic material of the recording process etc.) and the sound of the reproducing piano and pianola. The event was complemented by a research seminar (on 25th February 2015, PATS 1, 4-6 pm), titled Rollin’ On: Piano(la) Groves Uncovered, which examined how pianola and reproducing piano rolls can shed invaluable insight into the performance practices of renowned pianists including Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Debussy, and Grieg.